Ocularists:

What is an ocularist?

An ocularist is a carefully trained technician skilled in the arts of fitting, shaping, and painting ocular prostheses (also called artificial or prosthetic eyes).

To find an ocularist in your area, visit the American Society of Ocularists website.

What is a conformer?

A conformer is a clear plastic prosthetic, often having a 'peg' or 'stem' to allow them to be easily inserted and removed.  Conformers are usually the beginning step (prior to prosthetic eyes) for children with anophthalmia.

A child with bilateral anophthalmia wearing peg or stem conformers.

What is a scleral shell?

A scleral shell prosthetic that is shaped to fit over a microphthalmic eye. 

These scleral shells belong to a microphthlamic child.

A child with unilateral microphthalmia, first photo without a scleral shell, second photo with a scleral shell.

One mom documented a trip to the ocularist office with her child with microphthalmia in her blog. You can view her great photo jouney here: a trip to the ocularist

For detailed information about the handling and care of ocular prosthetics you can visit the

Jarhling Ocular Prosthetic Website.

To learn how custom ocular prosthetics are made you can visit the Erikson Labs Northwest Website.

Clear "peg" conformer with painted iris

 Flesh colored "peg" conformer.

Prosthetic eye for a child with anophthalmia.

A series of "peg" conformers and prosthetic eyes used for one child over an approximate 18 month period.  All of these were created by Dr. Tim Friel with The Center for Ocular Reconstruction in Bethesda, Maryland.  The differences in shape demonstrate efforts to stretch the ocular tissue in several directions (depth vs. lateral).

Child wearing one of the prosthetic eyes from the above series.

Same child wearing one "peg" conformer and one prosthetic eye, both from the above series.

(not the best photo, I'll post a better one soon :)

In order to take some of the mystery out of conformers, scleral shells, and prosthetic eyes, we share this information.